Centennial teaching assistants honored

STANFORD -- Twenty-seven of the people who play a very important role in
teaching at Stanford University were presented the second annual Centennial
TA (Teaching Assistant) Awards.

The TAs, graduate students who help teach undergraduates in the schools of
Humanities and Sciences, Earth Sciences and Engineering, were honored at a
ceremony June 15 attended by the deans of those schools -- Ewart A.C. Thomas,
W. Gary Ernst and James F. Gibbons.

Thomas, who conceived the awards in 1989, said the Centennial TAs "serve
as models of the scholarly life to undergraduates, as bridges between faculty
and younger students, and as apprentice teachers."

Thomas said he started the program because he felt TAs should be a part of
the celebration of Stanford's centennial, and he wanted their roles
recognized during the historic year. A gift from John A. Ditz (a Stanford
alumnus and former member of the Board of Trustees) and his wife, Ann,
provided initial funding for the program. The Centennial Organizing Committee
also contributed.

While initially developed for the School of Humanities and Sciences, the
program was immediately expanded by Deans Ernst and Gibbons into Earth
Sciences and Engineering schools.

Centennial TAs are chosen by their departments. Each receives a
certificate and $500 award.

At the awards ceremony, Thomas expressed his hope that the Centennial TA
program would soon be endowed in perpetuity.

He also announced that departments in Humanities and Sciences could submit
proposals to the Centennial TA Program for funding of new or improved TA
training efforts. Proposals are typically designed by graduate students and
faculty members and include such projects as producing a department handbook
for TAs, developing a departmental orientation to teaching, or starting a
program to videotape TAs in action.

This year, TA training grants were awarded to the departments of
anthropology, chemistry, communication, economics, english, French and
Italian (in association with Spanish and Portuguese), linguistics, music,
political science, and Slavic languages and literatures.

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